How does it “protect” Molina for the Cardinals to throw at a guy’s knee for his role in an accidental injury? If Harrison had done something dirty, fine, throw at him. I don’t think anyone would object to that. But risking a guy’s career in order to “send a message” about an accident is the kind of thing a sociopath would do. Harrison checked on Molina when he saw he was hurt, and clapped for him from the dugout when he was able to get up and walk off, and this is how the Cardinals react? That’s horseshit.

Here‘s the box score for the game with the Molina/Ruiz collision, which happened in the bottom of the 8th. Molina came up to bat again in the 10th, and the Phillies didn’t throw at him. Indeed, he was the final out of the game. Here‘s Molina’s next game against the Phillies, two days later. He didn’t get hit in that one, either. He did happen to collect a couple of HBPs in the teams’ next series… three months after the fact. You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t see a linear relationship between those two events. If the Phillies had wanted to hit him as retaliation for the collision, they could (and probably would) have hit him during the series in which the collision happened. They certainly weren’t lacking opportunities.

I think it’s pretty obvious why Harrison tried to go through Molina rather than sliding – just look at the video I linked in my first post in this chain of conversation, where he slid on a play at the plate and ended up with blood pouring out of his nose. Have you actually been reading my responses at all?

You apparently weren’t watching the game, either, because your characterization of events isn’t accurate at all. When Westbrook threw at Harrison, Hurdle jumped out of the dugout like he’d been shot from a cannon, and he spent several minutes arguing with the home plate umpire. The crowd knew what was happening, too, and while they’d clapped for Molina when he got up and walked off under his own power, they booed the shit out of Westbrook, and booed again when he got pulled from the game the next half-inning before the Pirates had a chance to retaliate.

You’ve at least admitted that the play at the plate was clean, just as Molina did when he was asked about it. What kind of team retaliates after a clean play? What message does that send? “Don’t let the accidental consequences of something that wasn’t your fault happen to us again, or else”? Westbrook’s decision to throw at Harrison and then hide on the bench was one of the most chickenshit things I’ve seen in baseball in a long time. I guess he can dish it out, but he can’t take it. I bet Molina would’ve been ashamed to see the Cards pull that crap.

Votto and Braun are good players, but right now there’s only one guy leading the NL in OPS+, and his name isn’t Votto or Braun. As of right now, McCutchen is the best hitter in the league.

I’m not sure why you keep talking about Harrison hitting Molina in the head with a forearm when I already showed you a photo of the forearm hitting the chest and the shoulder hitting the head. There isn’t any ambiguity about what happened. It was caught on film from a number of different angles. Harrison’s shoulder happened to hit the head because Molina is several inches taller than Harrison is, and when Molina crouched down to swivel and make the tag, that brought them into line. Similarly, your analogy between Westbrook’s HBP and Harrison’s collision falls apart because there was deliberate intent to injure in the former but not in the latter.

If you want to think of yourself as a baseball fan, you should know how to spell the name of the best player in the NL. Wouldn’t it bother you if every day you saw posts about “Carlos Belltron” and “Adam Winewright”? Not caring enough to get it right is a demonstration of contempt.

Similarly, Westbrook’s pitch wasn’t just “an 85 MPH floater below the waist”. He was aiming at Harrison’s front knee, but missed high and got him on the thigh when the ball carried a bit. Hitting Harrison wasn’t justified here per the unwritten rules, since it was a clean play, but even if it had been a cheap shot, the by-the-book thing to do would have been to hit him in the ass or the back. Throwing at a guy’s knees is bush league stuff – that can end a career, particularly for an undersized player who relies on speed.

Who is “McCutcheon”?

Because the catcher wears a chest protector?

But that is the kind of shot that in the NFL now gets you a 15 yard penalty and a $25,000 fine. Concussions are serious business, and it is time that that MLB takes note of that.

What can they do? That’s for people way above my pay grade. But as a former catcher, I got run over many times, and ran over catchers a few times. Somehow I managed to never attack a guy’s head, though.

I’m not attacking the Pirate who hit him, though. I’m not sure he could have avoided, nor do I think he did it intentionally. But he also didn’t complain about being hit, either. He understood. And so do 99% of players that played the game at a level where you can run over catchers.

But Pouliot is more of a troll than he is a blogger. You don’t call an entire team some juvenile name, and you certainly don’t do it in a headline. Well, you don’t do it if your are interested in ever being taken seriously.

Matthew, if you are going to write about baseball, you should probably learn the rules. If a fielder as the ball at the base prior to your arrival, you are required to concede the out. There is no allowance to assault the fielder in an attempt to score.

.

I’d like to back you up on this, but you are flat out incorrect in your assertion of the rules.

While there is no rule forbidding or allowing a Runner/Fielder collision at Home Plate – below is the rule ‘obstruction’ of the runner (specifically, it is what the Catcher may or may not do in a play at the plate is noted in bold italics – and it would apply to any fielder covering Home incidentally):

7.06 (a) – If a play is being made on the obstructed runner, or if the batterrunner is obstructed before he touches first base, the ball is dead and all runners shall advance, without liability to be put out, to the bases they would have reached, in the umpire’s judgment, if there had been no obstruction. The obstructed runner shall be awarded at least one base beyond the base he had last legally touched before the obstruction. Any preceding runners, forced to advance by the award of bases as the penalty for obstruction, shall advance without liability to be put out.

(b) If no play is being made on the obstructed runner, the play shall proceed until no further action is possible. The umpire shall then call “Time” and impose such penalties, if any, as in his judgment will nullify the act of obstruction.

NOTE: The catcher, without the ball in his possession, has no right to block the pathway of the runner attempting to score. The base line belongs to the runner and the catcher should be there only when he is fielding a ball or when he already has the ball in his hand.

The bottom line is this . . . whether it be at First, Second, Third or Home, no fielder has the right to stand in front of the base and obstruct the runner.

If, on a play at the plate, the Catcher stood to the side of Home, instead of obstructing the runners rightful path, and the runner then went out of his way to level the Catcher, then the Runner would be out for interference (even if he touched home safely prior to leveling the Catcher) – and quite likely ejected.

However, “blocking the plate” is a strategic choice that teams and Catchers make in order to make conceding a run on a play at Home Plate as difficult as possible on a potentially close play.

So in a nutshell, the act of blocking Home Plate is obstructing the runners rightful unimpeded path to Home Plate, and the runner has the right to do what is necessary to score at the Catcher’s own peril.

I have no problems with ‘b-1′. He threw a forearm to Yadi’s head.
But again…I have no problems with collisions. They are a part of the game of baseball.
I also have no problems with purpose pitches. They are a part of the game of baseball as well.
Especially when that purpose pitch is an 85 MPH floater below the waist.
A huge number of teams would have drilled McCutcheon for it to better make it count.

A surprisingly large number of Cardinals fans seem to think that:

a) The collision was a dirty play.
and
b-1) Westbrook was justified in throwing at Harrison’s knees.
or
b-2) Westbrook’s pitch that hit Harrison was an accident, rather than a “purpose pitch”.

Problem I have is that I don’t really want to hate them but its hard not to.

The collision was a good, tough play by both Harrison and Molina. Just one of those things that happens in baseball sometimes, when guys are playing at max effort. I’m glad that Molina is OK, because he showed some real spirit by hanging onto the ball and making the play. Too bad the rest of the Cardinals (and their fans) couldn’t show the same kind of restraint and dignity.

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=19824417&c_id=mlb

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=19824417&c_id=mlb

2.) It was juvenile of the Cards to retaliate. Clearly they were upset at the prospect of losing one of their most important players while in playoff contention but nothing will make the Pirates hurt in a 9-0 victory like a blazing fastball from………. Jake Westbrook? On a list of hard throwers, he ranks closer to Bob Tewksbury than Aroldis Chapman.

3.) The retaliation was not nearly as juvenile as the Skip Bayless journalism displayed by Matthew. Calling somebody a “dipwad” for doing something you don’t agree with – are you blogging from an elementary school playground?

This is a physical game. Especially if you make hundreds of thousands and tens of millions of year to play it. That’s the compensation for, occasionally, getting knocked off your rocker.

The fact that Molina held onto the ball is amazing. Can’t we all just get along?